TRENTON – Edward Forchion has been in jail for over a year with no conviction under New Jersey's bail reform act.

Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, was arrested and charged with second- and third-degree witness tampering in March 2017. The charges come nearly a year after police raided his restaurant and "cannabis sanctuary" in Trenton, NJ Weedman’s Joint and the Liberty Bell Temple, in April 2016.

After the drug bust, Forchion was charged with several counts of marijuana-related offenses, but because those charges occurred before the state’s bail reform act, which went into effect in 2017, he was able to post bail and was released pending trial.

But now, under the bail reform Forchion has not been given the option of bail by a Mercer County Superior Court judge for the later witness tampering charge, despite the recommendation of his release by the computer algorithm that is used to assess risk in defendants.

Bail reform

Previously, bail in New Jersey was allowed for nearly all defendants, although sometimes it was set in the millions with a cash-only option for those accused of murder.

Forchion, who has no violent convictions, has been locked up in the Mercer County Correctional Facility in Hopewell, which is located less than three miles from Lambertville in Hunterdon County, since March 2017 because the prosecution argued he is a danger to the public.

New Jersey for the first time in its history is operating without bail, he said.

Under the bail reform act, defendants are ranked on their risk of failing to appear in court, committing future crimes, and committing violent future crimes.

“They’re punishing me before I do a crime,” he said. “They’re punishing for obstruction of justice saying they’re holding me because I will obstruct justice.”

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Edward Forchion, also known as NJ Weedman (center) at the court hearing of Jon Peditto, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for growing 17 marijuana plants in the Pinelands.(Photo: Doug Hood/Staff Photographer)

Detained

Despite the risk assessment algorithm recommending Forchion's release, prosecutors argued that if Forchion were released pending trial, he would pose a danger to the community.

“That’s like locking somebody up saying they will commit murder one day,” he said.

The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment for this article.

Forchion is considered one of the state's most vocal marijuana activists. His detainment comes at a time when New Jersey is the closest than it has ever been to seeing marijuana become legal after the election of Gov. Phil Murphy who campaigned on legalization. Forchion said that since marijuana is now becoming more accepted, he is shifting his attention to bail reform.

The witness tampering charge for which he sits in jail came after Forchion allegedly named the identity of Trenton police’s confidential informant, who the police used to build a case against Forchion in order to raid his restaurant. Forchion, who is representing himself in court, claims that he was within his Sixth Amendment right to research the informant as he was preparing for his defense in his drug charge case.

In November, Forchion was found not guilty by a jury of the more severe of the two charges, the second-degree witness tampering charge. The third-degree witness tampering charge, which carries a sentence of up to five years, is still pending against Forchion because one jury was hung in the deliberations.

The case

Chris Campbell, Forchion's standby council for his witness tampering case, believes that the state has a weak case against Forchion.

"We've sat through this trial already once before and the jury found him not guilty on the second-degree," Campbell said. "After sitting through this trial once before, it just doesn't look like the state has the evidence to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

After his second-degree charge was defeated, Forchion submitted a motion for his pretrial release, but the judge denied him.

Under the bail reform act, which was enacted in January 2017, defendants must have their first court appearance within 48 hours of an arrest; prosecutors have 90 days to indict a defendant; and, if indicted, a trial must be scheduled in 180 days.

Included in the bail reform act is also the notion of excludable time, which can be counted against a defendant's 180-trial clock. According to a state fact sheet, there are 13 scenarios in which excludable time can be administered.

For example, a judge has up to 60 days to respond to a motion for nearly all motions a defendant or prosecutor submits. The amount of time that the judge takes to answer is considered excludable time. Excludable time is one of the aspects of bail reform that Forchion is most critical of.

Forchion said that he is already facing 57 days of excludable time since his hung jury in November.

'Dungeon Act'

The bail reform act was enacted with the goal of helping low-risk, nonviolent defendants who couldn't afford bail get out of jail. For the most part, the idea has worked.

Nine months after bail reform was put in place, the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which played a role in shaping the bail reform act, said that the state's pretrial jail population has decreased by 15 percent.

But Forchion is claiming that the bail reform act is being used to punish people pretrial and calls it the "Dungeon Act" for this reason and is forcing defendants to accept plea deals. He also called his pretrial detention his "legal lynching" and created an online pamphlet on his website, www.njweedman.com, detailing this.

“I’m saying that the Constitution does not apply now,” he said. “The Eighth Amendment is not applying.”

Forchion said that he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but instead "I am an innocent man jailed now for over a year with no bail."

In a separate matter, Forchion is suing Trenton, alleging that his constitutional right to freedom of religion was infringed when the city's police department closed his restaurant down after 11 p.m. The police issued Forchion more than 10 summonses for operating a business past 11 p.m., but the tickets have since been dismissed by a municipal court judge.

On March 19, U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan denied Trenton's motion to dismiss his Forchion's federal civil rights lawsuit.

Also in March, the Supreme Court of New Jersey denied Forchion's motion to be released pending his witness tampering trial. He believes that he may be given additional excludable time as the result of this failed motion because of a new appellate ruling, State v. Washington.

“You already know you can’t file any motions. You file any motions and that’s excludable time," he said. “Why would I appeal anything else ever again?”

"Ed wants to go to trial immediately," said John Vincent Saykanic, the attorney handling Forchion's appeals.

As for Forchion's pretrial detention, Saykanic said that it is "punishment at this point," adding that he believes it is ironic that the bail reform act was designed to help people stuck in jail.

"The new bail reform act was supposed to help people who couldn't make bail," he said. "His case is an example of how it's a nightmare. With Ed's case, it shows a huge flaw in the reform because he cannot get out. He's been in there for one year on a third-degree."

Forchion, however, recently had a pre-trial appearance scheduled for April 16 for his witness tampering case, which will be his first court appearance since November when he beat the second-degree charge.

“I believe in the Constitution, I have a right to trial,” he said. “I thought I had a right to bail."